This is us
Therer
5th season
Episode 8
Editor Rating
Photo: NBC
The last time we met for our scheduled Pearson Family Sadness Hour, we were focused on a mother’s influence on her son, when Randall finally learned the story of his biological mother Laurel. Of course, on the surface he almost dismissed her, but it became clear this season that Laurel’s specter looms over Randall’s life, first as a mystery he wanted to solve and now as a person to whom he could feel connected. Randall’s birth mother is a part of him. There” This is us passes to the bonds between parents and children.
Listen, the idea that Pearson children are deeply influenced by their dead father is not new. This program can be titled Daddy Issues and we would all say “yes, mmhmm, this is necessary”. The power that Jack Pearson, the man, the myth, the legend, has over his children is undermined territory. This is especially true for Kevin: remember “Jack Pearson’s Son” from the first season, in which Kevin, channeling his father, abandons his Back of an egg debut to pack Randall when he has a nervous breakdown? Kevin’s actions in that episode were really just the beginning of him living his life under What would Jack Pearson do? mandate. In “There”, we see how keeping Jack’s voice in his head changed Kevin, forced him to redefine the priority of his life, and how it can have some lasting repercussions.
It makes sense that Kevin is thinking more about his relationship with Jack today – he is about to become a father. Yes, Madison is in labor six weeks ahead of schedule and Kevin is in Vancouver about to shoot his big scene with [checks notes] Robert de Niro. It’s Kevin’s dream come true … until he gets the call from Madison and hears how scared she looks. It doesn’t take long for Kevin to realize that maybe his dream has become something different. Before leaving for Vancouver, Madison told him to find out how he wanted to be part of his family. The speed with which Kevin decides to leave the set and reach his fiancee and children seems to indicate that Kevin has decided that his family will always come before his career. He doubts that decision during his race to get to Los Angeles when he first dismisses his agent, who is calling to see if Kevin actually abandoned De Niro, and even more so when our favorite pretentious indie director Foster calls to ask Kevin to return to the set and Kevin begins to tell him that no one cares about his stupid movie. Kevin gives up.
Before we can guess what Kevin’s future will be like after possibly blowing up his entire career, we first have to see if he arrives in time for the birth of his children. Kevin’s decision to leave the set may be an easy one, but the rest of his journey is definitely not. It takes a while, but thanks to Miguel’s help, Kevin gets a ticket on a flight from Seattle to Los Angeles that takes off in two hours. He’s about an hour out of Seattle. He can do that.
Then the perfect storm of bad shit happens: it is late, he is driving in a remote area where he has no cell service and he comes across a car that crashed on the side of the road. The car is on fire. Kevin goes over there and pulls the guy out of the wreckage, uses his jacket as a tourniquet to stop the guy’s leg bleeding and loses his wallet in the forest in the process. This will definitely be an issue when Kevin shows up at the airport.
Since Kevin can’t call an ambulance, he puts the guy in the car and takes him to the nearest hospital. He’s getting close for the flight, but still! have! Time! On the way there, Kevin definitely doesn’t want a dead body in his hands, so he’s trying to make sure the guy stays awake. It’s pretty common that when Kevin says they need to keep talking, he basically starts talking about how he can’t believe he’s going to miss the most important day of his kids’ lives and that his dad was the best dad instead of, you know , ask the guy who’s about to die something about himself. So this guy is bleeding and needs to comfort Kevin by saying that he has three teenagers and the day they were born is definitely not the most important of their lives. This man!
At this point, the guy realized that he was rescued by actor Kevin Pearson and ensures that he doesn’t worry because he is rich and famous and his kids will idolize him anyway. But Kevin doesn’t like that. Jack was neither rich nor famous; Kevin loved his father because he was always there to help him. “My father was the most ‘there’ person who ever lived,” he says. And it’s not just a line from Kevin: throughout the episode, we are watching a story from the early 90s that shows us just that.
The 90’s storyline starts with Jack and Young Kevin going to a weekend quarterback camp for 7th and 8th graders. Kevin just overheard his parents talking about how unhappy he is playing football and Jack telling Rebecca that she allowed Kevin to give up when the going got tough, softened him up. As soon as the boys arrive at the hotel, Kevin is so concerned with disappointing his father that he becomes ill. When Jack finally gets his son to talk to him, he reveals two things: first, that Kevin thinks Jack thinks football is the only thing Kevin has that makes him special and is the only reason why Jack came with him to the camp. Second, Kevin’s trainer is extremely tough on him and repeatedly calls him stupid. None of these things suits Jack well and he takes Kevin out to dinner to find out how to fix things.
The coach’s aspect has a quick fix: when Jack comes across Kevin’s coach in the restaurant bathroom, he makes it very clear that if he hears the coach call his son stupid, there will be a problem. Jack interrupts the conversation by handing the trainer a paper towel to help him dry his hands. A very baller-like movement.
Kevin’s other problem – feelings of intense pressure and inadequacy – requires a softer touch. Hearing how Kevin feels breaks Jack’s heart because he went through it. When he was in the children’s league, his father turned something Jack loved into a nightmare by getting drunk with his games and scolding him if he played badly (see an example of one of those games and Jack’s complicated journey home in episode C ) Jack swore he would never do that to his own children, but now he feels like Stanley. He tells Kevin all this at dinner, but even Little Kevin is mature enough to realize that Jack is nothing like his father, he is much, much better – and tells him so.
But in addition to this conversation showing us how proud Jack was to be Kevin’s father and how much Kevin admired him (and in addition to Jack assuring Kevin that football isn’t all he has, advice that might apply if Kevin really need to move from acting), also takes home one of the main themes of the show about parents and children. Jack tells Kevin that maybe what makes “parents so big in our heads is that they are a million things to us at the same time” and that “even after they are gone, we are stuck with them, we cannot help , they are within us. ”Jack may mean that he inherited some of his father’s less than stellar traits, but for Kevin it means much more than that: Yes, he comes from a long line of addicts, but Kevin also inherited the best parts of Jack. He’s a better person because he constantly hears his father’s voice in his head. That’s why he helped that guy by the side of the road and that’s why he so desperately wants to show up to his kids.
And that’s definitely why, when he finally arrives at the airport and realizes he doesn’t have his identity, he begs the TSA agent to find a way to get him on the plane. Not being present for the delivery “will break me,” he tells her. Okay, that’s a lot for this woman to just do her job and mind her own business. Will she be influenced by the Pearson drama of it all? Time will tell!
• The episode ends with Randall and Beth calling Madison on the way home from New Orleans to see how she is doing. Upon learning how upset she is to be alone, Randall offers to stay on the phone with her for as long as she needs. “You are family,” he tells her. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Did you ever imagine that we would be here with Madison? Madison!
• Car Accident Guy (has he already been nominated? Did I block it?) Is played by Joshua Malina (Scandal, The West Wing, so many things!), so we have to assume that he will come back somehow, right? We deserve at least an update on your health status.
• The Jack / Kevin soda straw thawed my cold, dead heart! Kevin loves his father very much! Please let him start building the big three houses now so that we can feel warm and cozy inside!
• Whoa, whoa, whoa. Kate and Toby’s baby is about to be born! We received a quick call between Kevin and Kate and found out that KaToby is going to the hospital because Ellie will be induced! Everything is happening so fast! Is there a way for these two birth stories to go well?